The month I turned 17 was the same month I finally got my first gym membership.

My older sister had a boyfriend at the time who was a bodybuilding fanatic.

His name was Russ.

Russ was a huge guy who had a big time 80's mullet.Russ was sporting a full blown AC Slater doo.

I think the "party in the back" part was even longer than AC's.

Ironically, my hair at the time was sort of like Zack Morris's. Yep...I had blonde hair with highlights.

Like Zack, but curlier.

...but not full-blown curly like Screech.

Nobody wants to be like Screech!

Okay, back to my first training partner.

Russ was a roided up mad man!

He gave me the worst lifting advice ever. I listened to what he taught me since I was a newbie and he had been lifting for 7+ years.

...but his advice was terrible!

He was smelly too!

Some people just have a naturally salty sulfur body odor. He borrowed a shirt one time and I couldn't even wash the smell out of it.

I was following his bad advice, but that changed when I picked up Arnold Schwarzenegger's Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding. I used to skim through this book a few times per week to get new ideas on exercise variety for each body part.

A new version was released in 1999...and my guess is that it is a good if you are new to lifting.

...but if you are intermediate to advanced?

I highly recommend you pick up MI40X this week while it is offered at a steep discount.

MI40 Extreme 2.0 (discount link)

Ben Pakulski has created countless videos on the most effective exercises for each body part.

Even if you don't use the Cell Expansion Protocol method to increase the nuclei in each muscle cell...the exercise videos alone are worth the investment.

The ones that make you wait 20 minutes before you can order the Visual Impact Muscle Building product.

I typically just like to get the crucial info and decide whether or not I want the product. Most of the time I pick up new fitness courses if I believe they will bring something new to the table.

Tuesday morning I picked up a course that teaches how to increase the nuclei in a muscle cell.

I'll talk more about the significance of muscle nuclei in a sec.

...but will start by discussing good and bad points.

First the Bad:

1. It uses a drawn-out video sales letter.

2. The sales video uses the typical catch phrases like "It's not your fault", "You've been lied to", "I might be forced to take this video down", etc.

But...

The course is outstanding.

Now the Good:

1. The second half of the video sales presentation teaches a technique called "Cell Expansion Protocol". Even if you don't get the course it will give you some ideas to build size quickly in stubborn body parts.

2. The course teaches how to increase the number of Nuclei and Mitochondria in a muscle cell. This is the key to adding size to a muscle quickly.

3. The video training library included is ridiculous! It took me 30 minutes to download all the training videos...and he demonstrates countless exercises for each body part.

Increasing the muscle cell nuclei is a BIG deal.What happens when you increase the number of nuclei per muscle cell?

Your muscles will synthesize more protein. You will be able to recover faster.

Ben teaches how to do this with a specific type of training.

He demonstrates how to do this with biceps at the end of the sales video.

He also suggests in the course that the term "genetic limit" is overused...that we should think more along the lines of "genetic starting point".

If you have a body part that is small and stubborn compared to the rest of your body, it could simply mean than you have a small amount of nuclei in the muscle cells of that stubborn body part.

It could be that easy gainers simply start off with more nuclei per muscle cell than hard gainers.

...and that if you have a strong muscle group it simply has more nuclei than a weak muscle group. This is a pic of David Robinson of The Spurs back in the day.

This guy's shoulders were simply outstanding...and an incredible player as well.

I don't want to be huge all over

...but I would love to increase the development of my delts.

The reason I picked up MI40X, was to use Ben's Cell Expansion Protocol on my delts, calves, and upper chest.

If you have a lagging body part, I highly recommend you checkout the course.

Visual Impact Muscle Building

Cheers,

-RustyFitness Black Book and Visual Impact fitness courses

PS: This course has a full blown plan if you want to grow muscle all over. This isn't how I intend to use this info...but it has an in depth 6 week program along with diet and exercise videos, etc.

The exercise video library is absolutely the best I've seen offered in any fitness course.

PPS: Women can use this info as well, if they want to add size to a specific body part.

I'm thinking that most women won't want to add as much muscle as possible over most of their body, but might use the info like me...selectively on lagging body parts.

Monday, 9 June 2014

I grew up in an area on the Puget Sound, about 30 minutes south of Seattle called Dash Point.

...yeah I know it is a funny name.

We should have written it as " - ." to confuse people.I loved growing up here.

I enjoy the smell of salt water and the sound of Seagulls.

Makes me happy to this day.

We would spend all summer back then, either boating, dock diving, or skim boarding.

One summer when I was 15, I remember walking with my dad down to the Dash Point Dock to go fishing.

We lived a couple blocks up the hill from the dock.There were two ways to get to the Dock.

1. The long way, which meant taking a winding road down the hill.

2. The shortcut, which meant walking through neighbor's yards.

My dad didn't like cutting through yards, but on this day I talked him in to it. At the end of the shortcut was a steep grass hill that you had to run down. It was too steep to walk.

I didn't think twice about it, because that was the shortcut I took daily.

...but my dad looked really hesitant.

I remember him saying "I don't think I can get down this hill Rusty".

I egged him on.

He gave in to my pressure and made an attempt to get down the hill.

He absolutely bit it!

He took 2 steps and then began tumbling hard down the hill.

He sucked it up, but I could tell he was hurting.

I also realized that my dad really couldn't run anymore.

Have you ever seen the average middle aged person trying to run.

...like running to their car in the rain?

And I'm convinced that the same muscles that allow you to run, contribute to balance as well...or not falling when you trip over something.One of the times I missed was when he caught the front of his foot on a curb and fell so badly that he scraped the TOP of his hands!

I don't even know how that happens.

I love my dad to death...but bummed out that he stopped being active in his 30's.

Developing strong fast twitch muscles allows you to quickly jog forward when you trip over something.

It also allows you to run out of the rain to your car if needed, without looking like you are moving in slow motion.

There are countless reasons why it makes sense to have strong & responsive muscles.

Here are a few ways to develop this type of muscle in your lower body.

I attended the University of Washington from 1988-1992.I had a blast back then for a number of reasons. Our football team won the national championship in 1991 It was the tail end of an era of big keg parties. I met friends for life that I still hang out with on a regular basis. Got to witness the birth of the Seattle grunge scene.Speaking of Seattle music, this weekend I watched the 2014 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction on HBO.It was really cool seeing Nirvana get inducted into the hall of fame.They decided to play a set using 4 female vocalists.Joan Jett , Kim Gordon (Sonic Youth), Annie Clark (St. Vincent), and Lorde.Kim Gordon's performance was my favorite. I recommend watching this if it is available online.Okay...so why was it easy for me to stay lean in college?Well I didn't have a car and walked non-stop between classes.It was a solid 15 minutes fast walking each way to get from where I lived, to my classes Rarely did I ever have classes that were scheduled in a row....so I'd walk 15 minutes to class, 15 minutes back, then do that two more times.I'd go back and study and then 15 minutes to our gym and 15 minutes back.On average I'd say that I walked at least 2 hours just to get around.These days, I rarely walk more than 10 minutes.I'm convinced that we underestimate how much being active outside of the gym can contribute to fat loss.Leigh Peele is one of my favorite fitness authors and she agrees.In Fat Loss Troubleshoot she talks about a cool experiment she conducted.She called it the "The Hunting Test".She assembled a team of 2 men and 2 women to recreate the daily activities of hunters and gatherers...to see how many calories were burned gathering food for the day.They had to collect food and track animals. They didn't harm any animals, but just had to get within range of an animal. They also simulated fishing.The men had to work until they reached 3,000 daily calories and the women 2,500.All the subjects wore GoWearFit devices to track calories burned.The results?Calories Burned during those 8 hours:Female 1: 1,801Female 2: 1,743Male 1: 2,810Male 2: 2,440Caloric Burn walking back to camp:Female 1: 531Female 2: 491Male 1: 1069Male 2: 989Caloric Burn for the rest of the night until morning after sleep:Female 1: 741Female 2: 690Male 1: 1,304Male 2: 1,129*Grand total for the day:Female 1: 3073Female 2: 2,294Male 1: 5,183Male 2: 4,558*The total calories burned is the equivalent of what a high level athlete would burn.Obviously most of us aren't going to be close to this active but even moderate activities can add a lot to your daily calorie burn.Here's another study Leigh conducted and talks about in Fat Loss Troubleshoot.The subject?A woman who weighed 180 pounds and had 39% body fat.60 minutes sitting: 61 calories40-minutes weightlifting session: 255 calories25 minute Interval workout: 167 calories59-minute grocery shopping and cooking session: 255 calories45-minute bathroom cleanup: 201 caloriesNote: It is pretty interesting that daily activities can burn more calories that "official" workouts. I think that this is a HUGE contributor for people when it comes to getting lean. Leigh Peele specializes in looking at the whole picture when it comes to fat loss.I'm a big fan of her work and think Fat Loss Troubleshoot is perfect for people who have hit a fat loss sticking point.I like the newest version of her course so much I emailed her to ask for a discount for people who subscribe to my newsletter. So she setup a discount that expires on Thursday at midnight.Fat Loss Troubleshoot Discount Link for My Newsletter SubscribersLeigh's specialty is finding out the root cause of stalled fat loss.Clients pay her hundreds to thousands for coaching, but she wanted to reach more people...so she created a 180 page course on how she systematically finds and tweaks variables to overcome any fat loss plateau.She has a 100% success rate for clients who are compliant.I went through this 4th version of her course last night and know it will be the exact thing you need if your fat loss has stalled or is slower than desired.Just make sure and pick it up now to get the discount. Cheers,-Rusty Fitness Black Book and Visual Impact fitness courses

1) A large pot to hold 3 days worth of soup. 2) 3 days worth of boneless skinless chicken breasts.

For most people this will be 8-9 chicken breasts. I like to broil these first with a bit of soy sauce and salt and pepper. I'll also experiment with other spices to add flavor to the soup.3) 3-4 containers of chicken broth.4) A large variety of green vegetables.

You will need to avoid corn, peas, and carrots since they are starchy carbs. What you are looking for are things like celery, kale. onions, peppers, brussel sprouts, etc. I also like to put in a large batch of cilantro...because cilantro makes it extra tasty!5) 3 medium sized containers to divide the soup into 3 equal size batches.
This is a pretty easy diet to follow.

Each container is a day's worth of food.

It makes is psychologically easy to follow when you know exactly how much food you have left for the day.

You can ration your day's worth of food however you want. It could be that you like to have a small bowl of soup every few hours...or possibly you do better with 2 big bowls of soup throughout the day.

You can add salsa to the soup, make it spicy with a bunch of jalapeno pepper's, etc.

You can dramatically change the flavor depending upon what spices you put on the chicken before broiling.

I'd recommend making two 3 day batches per week...and giving yourself one day of higher calories and carbs.

...eat normal for one day without purposely trying to cheat as much as possible.

This is a solid diet to follow for 6-8 weeks, when life simply gets too busy to hit the gym.

Monday, 19 May 2014

I'm not going to lie.I'm definitely not the strongest person in my gym. I'm between 6'3" and 6'4" and have arms almost as long as Plastic Man....but this is the hand I've been dealt.

Being somewhat tall is cool, but with downfalls: Sucks trying to fit into plane seats (I never ride first class). The sleeve length of 99% of shirts and coats are too short. When you are young people ask if you play basketball (I didn't). Higher chance of bumping your head on stuff.Note: When you have a greater chance of hitting your head and you are also bald, you are almost guaranteed to see a bit of blood....but it's not all bad. Here are some things I like about being tall. I don't have to invest in step stools. I get a great view at most concerts. I don't have to worry women I'm dating being taller than me. People can easily find me in a crowd.Note: Being tall doesn't really give you the ability to find other people in a crowd. When I'm looking for a group of friends they always spot me before I spot them...but then again, I might stand out because of my freakishly long arms.

So...although I'm not the strongest person, I do know what it takes to increase strength.Let's talk a little about the bench press.Most guys...not matter what height or bone structure should eventually be able to bench press 225 pounds at least 1-2 times. I'm tall with a light bone structure...it took me a long time to get to this level of strength in the bench.I could squat 405 X 5 before I could bench press 225 pounds one single time.Looking back, I was making a huge mistake.A couple of them actually. I was using pyramid sets working up to the heaviest weight. I was using forced reps and training to failure.Know why my squat increased so quickly compared to my bench press? I typically stopped warm-up sets well short of failure...so not a true pyramid setup. I never trained squats to failure, because failing in squats is a brutal process, even in a power rack.---> If I would have trained my bench press like my squat workout...I'm convinced I would have hit my goals much earlier on.I avoid heavy squats these days, just to keep my legs in proportion with my upper body. If you need mass in the lower body they work well, but at some point you may find squats TOO effective at building lower body mass.My advice on gaining strength?Train all lifts in a similar fashion to a typical squat setup.1. Start light, but don't exhaust yourself on the lighter sets...save that energy and effort for your heavier sets.2. Stop 1-3 reps before failure on even the heaviest sets.Back to the bench press...I see a lot of young guys who ask for spotters on each and every set. They exhaust the muscles being worked before they hit the most important strength producing sets.By the time they are lifting heavy, they can't give 100%.I just saw a group of young personal trainers in my gym struggling the past 2 months trying to increase their bench press max.I figured this would be a quick tip others could benefit from as well.Cheers,

-Rusty MooreFitness Black Book and Visual Impact fitness coursesPS: I do realize that it is tough to hold back when so many trainers are pushing the "lift till you puke" workout philosophy. I've never trained until I puked. Am I alone? I haven't even seen this happen in my 27 years of having a gym membership in over 15 different gyms. If your workout involves buckets...you are doing it wrong :)